


more than a premonition

by randomcanbian



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Established Relationship, F/F, past Dorothea Arnault/My Unit | Byleth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23576983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomcanbian/pseuds/randomcanbian
Summary: There's something off about Byleth. Moreso than usual, anyway.And Edelgard's going to get to the bottom of it.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault & Edelgard von Hresvelg, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 11
Kudos: 140





	1. Chapter 1

There’s something strange about Byleth.

Scratch that; Byleth has always been a strange woman and she’s never tried hiding it, but her taciturn personality and her hyperfixation with fish isn’t what’s bothering Edelgard. It’s something she’s just noticed, and it doesn’t happen often enough for it to be a _thing_ , it’s just...well, strange.

“When you were dating Byleth,” Edelgard asks Dorothea on their weekly coffee date, “have you ever noticed something... _off_ about her?”

The singer raises a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Edie, dear, you’ll have to be more specific. I adore her, but she has more than her fair share of eccentricities, don’t let that angelic face fool you.”

The memory from last week of finding Byleth hanging upside down from the library’s second floor banister comes to mind. It has Edelgard suppressing a smile.

“I apologize. By off, I mean…” she pauses, looking for the right words, “...something strange for any human to be.”

“What do you mean?”

Edelgard takes a sip of her espresso. She blanches imperceptibly, then adds two heaping teaspoons of sugar as Dorothea watches on with amusement.

“Do you ever feel that she just always knows what to do? Not in the advice-giving sense—not that she’s a slouch in that either—but in a more practical way.”

She holds out a finger. “A couple of weeks ago, I elbowed a mug off the library counter while waiting for her, and then she appears out of nowhere seconds before it hits the ground and catches it. I shrugged it off as a combination of quick reflexes on her part and incredibly good timing.”

A second finger joins the first. “Last week, we were walking on a sidewalk to Petra’s when she stops all of a sudden, says a stone got lodged in her sandals. While we stop for her to fix her shoe, a gush of water falls a few feet ahead of us. Someone from the apartment next to us knocked over their basin of laundry water, and we would have gotten drenched if we hadn’t stopped. It seemed like a coincidence at the time.”

Another finger shoots up. “ _Yesterday_ , I wake up late, and I would have _actually_ been late to work because I couldn’t find my car keys. Then out of the blue, Byleth texts me, asking if I could check underneath the sofa on the off-chance her glasses fell off the table and landed there. I didn’t find her glasses but I _did_ find my keys.”

Edelgard places both hands on the table and eyes her friend. “It’s a little too much to be coincidence, don’t you think?”

Dorothea has a pensive look on her face. “It’s a little weird, I grant you, especially the car keys thing, but the rest isn’t anything new. We even teased her about it, called it her ‘spidey sense’. You’d never have to worry over smashing glass or tripping when she was around, she’d always find some way to catch you.”

“So my girlfriend just has a very strong sense of premonition?”

“I guess. What else could it be?”

* * *

Her meeting with the administrator from Enbarr General ends early; she rewards herself by leaving work _on time_ this time, so she can drive to the public library and surprise Byleth before her shift ends.

After a few stopovers, Edelgard reaches the library building and enters through its massive oak doors, a box of sushi in her right hand and a cup of brewed Almyran Pine Needle tea in her left.

She barely clears a meter from the entrance when her heels catch on a wrinkle in the carpet. As she falls, she mourns the expensive raw fish she’d just bought and the even more expensive blouse she has on, soon to be stained with expensive leaf water.

But the ground never comes. Instead, she finds herself in surprisingly strong librarian arms, while the box of food and the cup of tea have somehow found themselves—unspilled!—on the floor.

“El,” Byleth begins once she’s helped the lawyer to her feet. She has The Pout on, the one that never fails to overwhelm Edelgard with the urge to kiss it away. “You’ve been awfully clumsy of late.”

“I have been, I suppose.”

All according to plan, of course. For the past week, Edelgard has been “accidentally” knocking over glasses, or “accidentally” dropping plates and stacks of books for proof of Byleth’s so-called ‘spidey senses’.

She never said it was a _good_ plan. And despite the dubious quality of her machinations, they yielded results—for all of Edelgard’s orchestrated bumbling, Byleth’s never once let her down. 

Even now, with Edelgard’s very real stumble. 

How did Byleth even catch her? Edelgard knew for a fact that the librarian spent most of her shift behind the library counter or deep amongst its shelves, both at least a dozen meters away from the entrance. The chance that she was close enough to even _see_ Edelgard fall—much less swoop in to save her—was a rather slim one indeed.

“I got these for you, By,” she deflects, picking up the foodstuff on the floor and handing them to her girlfriend. “I’ll catch up; I left my bag in the car.”

“Alright.” Byleth gives Edelgard a kiss on the forehead before heading towards the pantry. The latter, instead of walking towards the entrance once again, watches the back of Byleth’s retreating figure. A minute or so passes. Once Byleth’s around twenty meters away, Edelgard decides to chuck her phone at her girlfriend’s head.

In one deft maneuver, Byleth moves the cup of tea she’d been holding and perches it on the top of the sushi box. With her right hand free, she looks over her shoulder and snatches the incoming projectile from midair.

She turns around and gives Edelgard a Look. Most observers wouldn’t notice the change from the librarian’s usual neutral expression, but as a learned student in Bylethology, Edelgard catches the shift quite easily. She’s incredulous, as she has every right to be.

But then again, so does Edelgard.

“How did you do that?” Edelgard asks, jogging up to Byleth.

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking questions?” Byleth asks, brow nigh-imperceptibly furrowed. “Like, why did my beloved try to assault me?”

“I’m sorry, my heart,” Edelgard apologizes. She sweeps Byleth’s bangs away, tiptoes so she can kiss the space between the woman’s eyebrows. “Dorothea told me about your ‘spidey senses’. I simply had to see it for myself.”

“You do know that if you were wrong, you could have given me a concussion. You work out enough for it to be a possibility.”

“But was I, though?” Edelgard asks, letting the smugness seep into her tone. “Wrong, I mean.”

Byleth’s eyes light up, like she’s had an epiphany. “ _This_ is why you’ve been dropping things left and right, isn’t it?”

“ _Well_ …”

The librarian snorts. “You know you could have just asked me, right? I’ve been spending the last week wondering if you’re even more sleep-deprived than the usual, or if you had a juvenile stroke.”

“I couldn’t just outright ask you if you had a sixth sense, By. I had to prove it to myself first.”

“And have you drawn a conclusion from your little experiments, love?”

“The results are too consistent for me to ignore, although it is a little hard for me to believe.”

Byleth shrugs as a small smile creeps its way onto her lips. “As much as I’d love to have a superpower, even if it’s something as ridiculous-sounding as ‘a spidey sense’, this whole thing is more of a mix of perception, quick reflexes, and a lot of luck.”

Edelgard finds herself nodding along. “It’s as good an answer as any, although I’d love to hear how you’ve come to your reflexes. Even Petra doesn’t move as fast.”

“It’s a Jeralt story,” Byleth says, smile still in place, “best told over sushi.”

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

More often than not, Edelgard would find herself working during lunch hours. Her supervisors often deemed it unnecessary — the senior lawyers at Von Hresvelg were a surprisingly easy-going bunch — but she knows that if she ever hoped to become a name partner worth her salt, she’d have to build a reputation from the ground up.

Today, however, she’d decided to stretch her legs and eat out. A bakery had just opened near the firm, and she’d vowed to sample their wares the moment she made eye contact with their window display. The lines of cakes and pastries looked so warm and scrumptious...they called out to her soul.

She was a block away from the bakery when a familiar voice called out to her. 

“Edelgard!” 

The woman turns to the sound, and lo and behold she sees her girlfriend running up to her. Edelgard takes in the navy blue tracksuit, the same-colored hair tied up in a high pony, the tinge of red coloring her usually pallid cheeks...had her girlfriend been  _ jogging _ ?

“Byleth?” Edelgard asks as the woman catches up to her. “Are you...are you out on a run?”

A beat passes as Byleth catches her breath. Then: “Uh...yes. Yes I was.”

Edelgard nods slowly, somewhat confused. “I thought you hated exercise?”

No one would think it by looking at her, but Byleth  _ did _ . Preternaturally quick reflexes aside, the woman hated any form of extraneous movement. Edelgard would know, having tried to coax Byleth into working out with her more times than she could count.

“Uh...remember when you deadlifted 250lbs last week? It made me think about getting into shape.”

A blush rises to Edelgard’s own cheeks. She easily remembers the event, the look Byleth gave her after dropping the barbell,  _ and  _ the makeout session they had in the lockers after the workout. Maybe too well. 

She tries to block the memory — she still has work to go back to after this. “Does this mean you’ll start working out with me? Hilda won’t stop pestering me to push you to join us instead of waiting for me to finish.”

There’s an amused look on Byleth’s face when she says: “She’s just jealous that I get to lie around in a gym all afternoon.”

“True as that may be…”

“I’m satisfied with running, for now.” Byleth gives her a wink that she’s  _ sure  _ Dorothea taught her. It’s at odds with the impassivity of the rest of her face, but Edelgard finds it endearing, as she does all things Byleth. “I’ll work my way up there.”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting, then.” Edelgard smiles at her girlfriend, before reaching out to hold her hand. It’s a little sweaty, but she will let herself suffer in the name of love. “Would you accompany me to lunch? If you haven’t eaten yet?”

“I would love to.”

Edelgard takes the lead, and they fall into their usual topics of conversation. How the library is, who’s covering for Byleth while she’s out for lunch, the state of Edelgard’s newest case… 

A few minutes after they begin walking, Edelgard catches something out of the corner of her eye. It’s a dark shape in an alleyway, a figure lying against the apartment building’s outer wall.

“Wait. Byleth, stay behind me.” She nears the shadowy alley. The dark mass reveals itself to be an unconscious man. His arms and legs are tied together with rope, and his mouth is gagged with a strip of black cloth. There’s a sheet of bond paper attached to his back, with a few words and a string of numbers written on it in neat print. It reads:

> _ “Hi! I tried mugging an innocent old lady! Please call the police precinct so they can lock me up!” _

The set of numbers, Edelgard assumes, is the precinct’s landline. 

There’s a photograph taped to the note as well — it’s one of the types that come out of an instant camera, she’s seen a number taped to the walls of Bernie’s shop. Upon a closer inspection, it’s a shot of the unconscious man brandishing a knife at an elderly woman, just as the note stated. The composition of the photo makes the man’s intention unmistakable — so much that Edelgard would think it was staged, if not for the slumbering body lying in front of her.

The whole thing raises so many questions; she can feel her head throbbing trying to make sense of it all.

“Is he okay?” Byleth says from behind her. Her girlfriend steps around her to look closer at the man. She reads the note, and as soon as she’s done she looks at Edelgard.

“Should we phone the police?”

“It could be a prank...but we can’t leave him like that, can we? And it’s better that they handle it in case it is real.” She takes out her phone, ready to dial.

The bakery will have to wait.

* * *

The first thing she sees when she enters the apartment is Byleth curled on her couch, reading a book.

“Of course. I’ll call you if ever that happens,” she says to the phone pinned between her head and her shoulder. She drops her handbag and her keys on a side table and makes a beeline towards her girlfriend. 

“Thanks, Ladi,” she says, ending the call. She leans over to Byleth and gives her a kiss, the latter having abandoned her book to give the gesture of affection its due attention. Soon after, Edelgard sheds her work outfit, bathes, then searches through Byleth’s cabinet for the sleepwear she’s left behind. 

As soon as she’s changed, she exits the bedroom to find Byleth setting the bigger table for dinner. At the center is a plate full of fish, expertly browned and seasoned.

“That smells heavenly,” Edelgard says, as she passes by the table to take the water jug from within the fridge. She takes out two glasses from Byleth’s cupboard and sets them beside their plates, then fills both to the brim with water.

“Queen Loach fillet marinated with lemon, rosemary, and garlic. A simple enough dish.”

“Simple enough for me to learn, you mean?”

Byleth grins as they both take their seats. “Even you can’t burn a fish fillet, El.” 

“You’d be surprised.”

As they take their dinner — a healthy portion of fish and rice for Edelgard, three times that amount for her girlfriend (she’s known her for years, and she still doesn’t know how she keeps so lean) — Edelgard brings up her earlier call.

“So I contacted my friend at the precinct, Ladislava, about the supposed mugger we saw this noon...he really did try to attack someone. They were able to track down the old woman in the picture and she confirmed that he tried to force her purse off her...until someone stopped him.”

“The guy who knocked him out and tied him up?”

“A woman actually, according to the witness. But yes. The old lady ran away as soon as the stranger intervened, but she was able to tell that the woman was dressed up like a robber — all black, with a ski mask on her face.”

Edelgard takes a sip of water.

“Ladi also tells me that this isn’t the first time this happened. It’s been going on for more than a month.”

Before she can continue, Byleth rises from her seat. “Actually, about that.”

She goes into her bedroom and comes out with a stack of newspaper. “This whole thing seemed familiar, so when I came back to the library, I dug through the local news we had catalogued. I found this.” She lays it on the table, and the article on the top has the headline: “MASKED VIGILANTE UNMASKS PETTY CRIMES PROBLEM OF ENBARR”.

Edelgard skims through the stack. Soon, it comes clear to her that whoever stopped the mugging from earlier today has done so for dozens of other cases. And in the weeks of doing so, no one has come close to figuring out who she is.

When she finishes the fourth article on the wannabe-hero she says: “As a lawyer, I am legally bound to say that I am averse to vigilantism...off the record, however, I have to say, I’m impressed. It’s one thing to disarm men with guns and knives, it’s another to be able to take such damning photos prior to doing so. A normal person wouldn’t risk the chance of being caught before going after an armed assailant.”

There’s a slight smile on Byleth’s face, like she had just made a joke. “Well, she’s a vigilante, isn’t she? She can’t be normal.”

Edelgard laughs. “You have a point.”


End file.
